Thursday College Baseball Top-50 Scoreboard/Wrapup (5/19/11)

With many key series opening on Thursday throughout college baseball, the underdogs stood up in impressive fashion – including 7-of-9 series between CB360 top-50 teams that saw the lower-ranked teams emerge victorious. The underdogs overall won 42% (13-18) of Thursday’s games involving CB360 top-50 teams, as the #1, #3 and #4 teams all were upset (along with #14, #16 and #19). front-page photo courtesy of North Carolina

Georgia's Michael Palazzone

Thursday’s top-50 upsets and other noteworthy results included the following:
• at #9 North Carolina 6, #1 Virginia 0 … UVa still has not clinched the ACC Coastal Div. title (UVa 22-6, Ga. Tech 21-7); could UNC pull off late surge and be a top-8 national seed in NCAAs?
• at #38 Alabama 2, #3 South Carolina 1 … Tide (14-4; four teams 13-5) now lead wild West Div. race in SEC; SC fell out of 3-team tie atop SEC East (Florida now alone at 21-7)
• at #42 Georgia 5, Vanderbilt 4 … UGa pushed two games above .500 (must finish w/ winning record to be considered as NCAA at-large entrant); Commodores now 21-7 in SEC
• at #5 Florida State 8, #15 Clemson 6 … FSU topped nearest competitor to clinch ACC Atlantic Div. title
• #6 Texas 4, at #11 Texas A&M 2 … these teams now are all even atop the Big 12
• at #45 Baylor 4, #14 Oklahoma 2 … Bears have clinched winning record
• #17 Rice 4, at Southern Mississippi 0 … another dead heat, this one atop Conference USA
• #48 Mississippi 2, at #19 Arkansas 1 … both ended the day in the 4-team logjam for 2nd-place in the SEC West (neither has clinched being in or out of SEC Tournament race)
• Marshall 6, at #30 Central Florida 0 … UCF would like more security for its NCAA hopes (can’t finish w./ winning record in CUSA, now 10-12)
• #37 LSU 17, at #32 Mississippi State 1 … LSU making late move (but will it be enough?); Bulldogs in the 4-way SEC West tie

Baylor's Logan Verrett

• at Texas Arlington 6, #34 Texas State 5 ... Bobcats already had clinched Southland Conf. title
• at Tennessee 5, #35 Auburn 2 … another costly loss for Auburn, now in the 4-way, 2nd-place tie in SEC West and in danger of not posting winning record (for NCAA at-large; 28-26)
• at South Alabama 9, #36 Troy 8 … loss dropped Troy from Sun Belt Conference lead (NCAA bubble team?)
• at Mercer 10, #44 East Tennessee State 8 … potentially costly loss for NCAA hopeful ETSU
• at Kennesaw State 10, #49 Jacksonville 8 … Dolphins are another NCAA bubble team, need to regroup and hope to take series/do well in A-Sun tournament

Florida State's Mike McGee

Most of the CB360 top-50 (40) were in action on Thursday, with several west-coast teams set to resume on Friday (the Pac-10, Big West and WCC do not have conference tournaments; regular-season champ gets NCAA automatic bid).